1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sheet guiding device, in particular for contact-free guidance of printed paper sheets in or in connection with printing machines, for example, in a dryer connected to a printing machine, and a method of producing the sheet guiding device.
In sheet-fed offset printing, particularly multi-color printing, printing inks and dispersion coatings are frequently used, which require a given length of time and amount of light radiation, i.e., infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) as well as heat possibly for the drying thereof. Correspondingly, not yet smudge-proof printed sheets or dispersion varnishes must be handled without damaging the fresh print. The sheets must run without smearing. The drying of the printing inks is frequently accelerated by heat. Serving for this purpose are dryers, which are provided with infrared radiators or UV-radiators of relatively high output, for example, up to 30 kW. Modern sheet-fed offset printing machines are capable of printing up to 21,000 sheets per hour, each sheet being able to have a maximum length of 1 m. This results in a very high production speed and running speed of the sheets and a very short dwell time in the dryer, which, in turn, results in the high required dryer outputs. The high thermal outputs cannot, however, be completely absorbed by the sheets. Part of the heat virtually unavoidably affects guide plates which are arranged opposite the infrared or UV-radiator for guiding the sheets in the dryer. Heat effects must, however, be kept away from the printing machine in order to avoid any impairment of the proper function thereof. An attempt has therefore been made to provide the guide plates with water cooling for carrying excess heat away.
In this regard, the published German Patent Document DE 196 02 514 C1 discloses a guiding device with a cooled guide plate which is connected to coolant channels at the rear side opposite from the guide face. For this purpose, a cooling trough plate is fastened onto the rear side of the guide plate by spot welding or pulse welding and is sealed off from the guide plate by a sealing element, such as a flexible or soft rubber ring.
Overheating resulting from applied radiation can cause the sealing rings to shrink, and the connections between the guide plate and the cooling trough plate to leak.
From the published German Utility Patent Document G 9418358 U1, it has also become known heretofore to use, as a guiding device, a guide plate having a further guide plate welded onto a rear side thereof by a laser welding method. In this regard, the plates are selected with different thicknesses. If the enclosed intermediate space is filled with compressed air, the thinner guiding plate is to be plastically (permanently) deformed, the thinner plate being provided with a curvature, and consequently a hollow body being formed, which then serves as a guiding device.
A method for producing hollow bodies with pre-shaped plate parts is disclosed, for example, in the published German Patent Document DE 34 07 770 C2. This method serves for producing fuel tanks from plate half-shells having like plate thickness. Both plate half-shells are provided with a peripheral flange-like border. The borders are welded by the laser welding method. It is essential that this weld seam be gastight, in order to prevent fuel from escaping. To achieve this, it is necessary, in the course of the laser welding operation, to build up a high contact pressure between the plate parts which are involved. For this purpose, in the region of the weld seam that is to be formed, the flange of one half shell is provided with a bead, which appears as a projection with respect to the half shell lying opposite thereto. In this regard, the bead has a depth corresponding approximately to the plate thickness and the width of the weld seam later to be formed. A pressing force between the half-shells is transferred completely by the bead, so that, during welding, a concentration of force and, consequently, an intimate material bonding occurs here, i.e., in the region of the weld seam to be formed. To make the surface pressure in the region of the bead as great as possible, the bead must be formed as narrow as possible, i.e., not wider than the laser beam. Consequently, the desired virtually linear contact between the parts to be welded is achieved.
In the case of guiding devices for printed sheets, however, it is not a matter of obtaining a gastight connection which, if need be, can withstand a crash, as in the case of a fuel tank, but rather, as good a surface as possible, which is provided for guiding printed sheets. In particular, in the case of printing machines which print sheets on both sides thereof, for example, on one side by first-form or recto printing, and on the other side, facing the guide plate, by perfector or verso printing, or on both sides by first-form or recto printing, what matters is guiding the sheet as far as possible without any contact. Therefore, as heretofore known in practice, the corresponding sheet guiding devices can be guided by sheet guiding members, so-called sheet guiding plates having air nozzles. The latter produce an air cushion on and along which the printed sheet is guided.
The published German Patent Document DE 44 27 448 A1 discloses a sheet guiding plate of this type, the guiding face of which has openings into which air blowing nozzles are inserted flush with the surface of the guiding face and adhesively secured or cemented therein. The air blowing nozzles are arranged so that the air flow formed over the surface is determined by a first velocity component in the direction of movement of the sheet and two further velocity components in the direction of the two side edges of the path of movement. Consequently, contact-free guidance of the sheet is assured.
In the guidance of the sheet, what matters is that the sheet slides so securely or reliably on the air cushion, even at high transporting speeds, as to avoid damage to a print on the side of the sheet facing the guide plate. In addition, the sheets are to be guided through the dryer at a speed corresponding to the output of the printing machine, which requires correspondingly high dryer outputs and, as a consequence, correspondingly high cooling capacities at the sheet guiding device.
Starting from the foregoing state of the art, it is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a sheet guiding device for guiding sheets which have been printed on both sides thereof, without causing any damaging thereto.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, a sheet guiding device having a top plate formed with a smooth side facing towards sheets to be guided past the device, comprising at least one depression defining at least one connecting region, the at least one depression being formed in the top plate from the smooth side thereof, and at least one rear element fastened to a rear side of the top plate and having at least one connecting portion assigned to the at least one connecting region, the at least one rear element bearing against the top plate and being connected thereto by laser weld seams forming a connection to the top plate at the at least one connecting region defined by the at least one depression, the at least one depression formed in the top plate being deeper than any deformation induced by the laser weld seams.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the at least one rear element is a further plate whereon the at least one connecting portion assigned to the at least one connecting region is formed, and a fluid chamber formed between the top plate and the further plate is included, and is accessible via at least another connection.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the fluid chamber is a coolant chamber having an inlet connection and an outlet connection and, therefrom, the top plate being, from the rear side thereof, in direct heat exchange with the coolant.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the fluid chamber is an air chamber, and the at least another connection serving for at least one of feeding and removing air.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the laser weld seam is formed so as to start from the at least one rear element.
In accordance with yet another feature of the invention, the top plate has a greater thickness than that of the at least one rear element.
In accordance with yet a further feature of the invention, the thickness of the top plate is more than twice as great as that of the at least one rear element at the laser weld seam.
In accordance with yet an added feature of the invention, the top plate is of high-grade steel.
In accordance with yet an additional feature of the invention, the rear element has a substantially rectangular outline, in the vicinity of which the rear element is connected to the top plate, the rear element having elevations spaced from a rim of the rear element, said rear element being connected at the elevations to the top plate.
In accordance with still another feature of the invention, the depression in the top plate is rectangular and follows the outline of the rear plate.
In accordance with still a further feature of the invention, in portions extending transversely to the direction of travel of the sheet, the depression is subdivided into regions extending obliquely to the transverse direction.
In accordance with still an added feature of the invention, the elevations are of like size and are arranged regularly.
In accordance with still an additional feature of the invention, a plurality of the elevations are formed with openings.
In accordance with again another feature of the invention, the depressions in the top plate are formed as beads.
In accordance with again a further feature of the invention, the elevations are connected to the top plate by annular laser weld seams.
In accordance with again an added feature of the invention, a plurality of the elevations are connected to the top plate by interrupted laser weld seams.
In accordance with again an additional feature of the invention, the beads have a width which is greater than the width of a weld seam.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the beads have a width which is much greater than twice as great as the width of a weld seam.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, in regions wherein the rear element has openings, the top plate is provided with air nozzles aligned so as to produce an air flow directed at the sheet.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the air nozzles, respectively, are aligned obliquely with respect to the sheet travel.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the air nozzles, respectively, are formed by a plate region which is partly cut free and bent away from the plane of the top plate.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for producing sheet guide plates, including forming depressions in a top plate in regions thereof which are intended to serve for connecting the top plate to a rear element at the rear of the top plate, forming connecting regions on the rear element, placing the top plate and the rear element on top of one another, and welding the rear element to the top plate by laser welding at the depressions, which comprises, in the top plate wherein a weld seam is created, forming the depression deeper than every deformation induced by the weld seam.
In accordance with a further mode, the method of the invention includes forming the weld seam by guiding the light beam of the laser on the rear element.
In accordance yet another feature of the device of the invention, the top plate has a polished surface with a surface quality corresponding to a 3D surface.
In accordance with yet a further feature of the device of the invention, the beads are annular beads.
In accordance with a concomitant feature of the invention, the laser weld seams are in a form selected from the group thereof consisting of spot and point forms.
Thus, the sheet guiding device according to the invention has a surface which makes it possible, even in regions wherein further elements are fastened onto the rear side thereof, for printed sheets to be guided on an air cushion from and to the guide plate without leaving ink on the guide plate. This is achieved by constructing the guide plate so that it is planar or curved only about one axis (cylinder portion), while it has depressions for forming laser weld seams.
The cooled sheet guiding device is essentially made up of a top plate and a rear plate, the top plate and the rear plate being laser-welded to one another. This ensures that a coolant space is formed between the top plate and the rear plate, the coolant present in the coolant space cooling the top plate directly, which makes high cooling capacities possible.
The top plate and the rear plate are connected to one another by laser weld seams when corresponding connecting regions are provided. These weld seams are arranged in depressions which are formed in the top plate on the smooth side thereof, the depressions being deeper than every deformation induced by the laser weld seam. A consequence thereof is that deformations, distortions, roughnesses and the like induced by the weld seam are accommodated by the corresponding depressions. Microscopic elevations or distortions caused by the weld seam consequently do not protrude out of the depressions and cannot touch a sheet running over the guiding plate. It has been found here that the depressions do not disturb an air cushion building up between the sheet and the guiding plate and do not cause any undesired turbulence even in the case of fast-running sheets. This is the case even if the irregularities or deviations from the ideal of the side of the top plate facing the sheet, which are formed by the depressions, are greater than the deviations induced by the weld seam.
The sheet guiding device according to the invention consequently makes high cooling capacities and high sheet running speeds possible with a simple, low-cost and material-saving construction. If a device for forming an air cushion between the sheets and the sheet guiding plate are provided, sheets printed on both sides (first-form or recto printing/perfector or verso printing or first-form or recto printing/first-form or recto printing) can be guided over the sheet guiding plate without depositing any ink on the sheet guide plate or damaging the print on the sheet. In addition, it has been found that, with the method for producing sheet guiding devices according to the invention, sheet guiding devices having a top plate which is virtually completely planar can be created. The thermal stresses and deformations occurring during the laser welding remain restricted to the region of the depressions formed, and do not distort the remaining surface of the top plate. Consequently, thin air cushions become possible, whereon the sheets are precisely guided without colliding with elevations of the sheet guide plate.
The laser weld seam is preferably formed from the rear side of the top plate. Consequently, during laser welding, the laser beam does not fall on the side of the sheet guiding device facing the sheet but on the elements welded onto the rear side, i.e., the rear plate, for example. Surface changes of the top plate showing on the smooth side of the top plate and attributable to the thermal exposure during the welding operation are restricted to the region of the depression and consequently do not impair the surface quality of the top plate in the regions which matter. For this purpose, the depression in the top plate is deeper than every deformation induced by the laser weld seam. The depth of the depression is in this case within the range of a few tenths of a millimeter, for example, 2/10 to 3/10 mm. This suffices for keeping thermal stresses away from the top plate which, for example, is formed much thicker than the rear plate. Also, as a result thereof, the thermal loading of the preferably highly polished front side of the top plate (3D surface) can be minimized.
For the connection between the top plate and the rear elements, one or more depressions may be provided, preferably formed as beads (annular beads). The width of these beads, in this case, preferably exceeds the width of a laser weld seam significantly. This keeps deformations induced by the laser weld seam away from the regions of the top plate lying outside the bead. It also gives rise to the possibility of reworking, i.e., when there are individual defects of the laser weld seam, a second weld seam can be set alongside the defective laser weld seam, the second weld seam not overlapping (crossing over) the defective weld seam and ultimately establishing the desired or fluidtight connection. The top plate may be provided with air nozzles, which are, for example, formed integrally on the top plate. This is accomplished by the top plate being provided with cuts or incisions, a region adjacent to the incision on one side being bent out towards the rear side. In this way, air nozzles which assume lifting and/or transporting functions can be formed.
This can be achieved by corresponding angling or angular adjustment of the air nozzles.
The rear plate is connected at the outer rim or border thereof to the top plate. In a corresponding manner, the bead formed for this purpose in the top plate is preferably substantially rectangular. In an advantageous embodiment, the portions of the bead extending transversely with respect to the running path of the sheet are arranged obliquely. For example, they follow a wavy line or a zigzag line. Collisions of the sheets running over them is consequently prevented.
Regularly arranged connecting locations between the top plate and the rear plate keep the top plate planar against the pressure of the cooling medium. The connecting locations are formed by, for example, cup-shaped elevations on the rear plate. The connection may be formed by an annular laser weld seam or one or more point- or spot-like welding locations.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a sheet guiding device and method of production, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein: